Why you Should Hold Onto The Silica Gel Packets You Find In Packages

silica gel

Everybody enjoys receiving new packages with shiny new items inside. Maybe it’s something you’ve been looking forward to for a while now, maybe you allowed yourself to indulge or maybe you got a surprise from someone you love.

However, what’s the one thing that is a little less fun than receiving the package? The packaging itself of course, with the pesky amounts of tape and random things put inside.

Though most of the boxes and materials inside are made with the sole purpose of what’s inside the package, packaging horrors like styrofoam peanuts can make for a terrible clean-up experience.

But there’s one thing in the package, a remote and unnoticeable little piece of substance, that plays an exponentially vital role in ensuring the protection of what’s inside a box. The sugar-like substance or silica gel packets are some of the handiest things you can find to keep moisture away.

These packets have silica gel desiccants that absorb moisture from the surroundings and keep your stuff dry. Most people throw these packets away with the packaging, but they can do a lot more for you than you think.

Hold on to those packets the next time you get a new pair of shoes or something in the mail, especially if excess moisture is something you have to deal with in your home. Plus, their reuse keeps them out of landfills.

Benefits of Silica Gel:

Check out down below, what silica gel packets can do for your house, and remember never to eat them, or leave them in a place where they can be reached by small children.

  1. Use them in casings for underwater cameras: Underwater camera casings are great fun, but they can fog or streak through your lens even if stray moisture and condensation don’t destroy your camera. Fight this by stashing along with the camera a packet or two of silica gel in the underwater casing.
  2. Toss them in your toolbox to keep your tools free of oxidation: To keep your instruments free from oxidation, throw them in your toolbox. Most people do not have moisture-secure tool boxes or forget to close their boxes after each use.
    If you’re someone who has to deal with rusted tools a lot or have bad, moist weather around you, put two packets of silica gel and watch as your tools remain rust-free and work smoother for a much longer time than usual.
  3. Dry the wet cell phone out: It’s an old favorite. You can always save it if your phone becomes the unfortunate target of a spill or dive. You just need to act quickly.
    Remove the handset from the battery and any memory cards, then throw it in a bowl full of silica gel packets (dry rice will work, too, in a pinch). Before turning it on again, leave it there at least overnight.
  4. Keep your jewelry sharp and elegant: To keep moisture away from your jewelry, keep a silica gel packet in your jewelry box. Moisture creates tarnish, which not only makes jewelry appear less desirable but also suggests that it must be polished for a long time.
    To hold the moisture out, place some gel packets at the bottom of the jewelry box. For plush-lined boxes, this is particularly good, as it will keep the fabric moisture-free, too.
  5. Fight condensation of the camera: If you put your camera out in the cold, when you carry it back into a warm room, it will face extreme condensation. Remove the memory card and battery and put the camera in a bowl of silica gel to absorb the moisture.
  6. Banning Odors from Your Exercise Bag: After a while, gym bags can get pretty funky with all the wet, sweaty clothes that we cram into them.
    The smells come from moisture-driven bacteria because if you eliminate the moisture, you remove the odor. Drop-in your pocket a packet or two and forget about them. They’ll take the moisture away quietly and leave your products fresh. They even work in lockers.
  7. Keep dry goods dry: Silica gel is inedible, but it does help to prevent food from being soggy, such as dried herbs, bread crumbs, crackers, and everything else that should be kept as crisp as possible.
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You can tape a packet to the cover, where it will work just as well if you don’t want to drop the packet right in with the food (which is good, so long as it stays unopened).

After checking out this list of silica gel uses, one can never go back to simply discarding a silica gel packet.

Beyond these DIY uses, Silica gel has great use in many industrial functions and is one of the most popular and commonly used desiccants in the packaging and pharmaceutical packaging industry! Try out these cool new tricks and check out the wonders of this for yourself!

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About the Author: Nicky Bella

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